To Stain Reputation ...

There is a reason why a lie is an abomination.  A lie is the tool to slander, and malign truth, especially The Truth.  Innocence had been convicted in the courts of pride, by men, by religious leaders who would not cede control to it.  For 2000 years the tactics have not changed.  Threats to power, threats to those who believe themselves to be in control, must first be destroyed in reputation, before in body.  The Sanhedrin in the days of Christ, is little different than the halls of power that exist today.  The pretenses may be different, but the tactics employed, and the results to the innocent are identical.  The Sanhedrin wanted more than the blood of Christ at His death, they wanted Him to be seen as guilty.  They wanted the common people to look upon innocence and call it guilt.  Yet another abomination to add to the rap sheet of religious men and their satanic master.

What would begin, was a long and calculated effort to make the name of Jesus of none effect.  Emmanuel, Yeshua, the Messiah, the Christ; all titles associated with Jesus from Nazareth must be taken from Him, or dragged through so much mud, no one could recognize them again.  The Truth was convicted of blasphemy against God; or in other words, God was convicted of speaking against God.  There was no sense in it.  There was no logic in it.  There was only an abundance of hate in it.  Love was nowhere to be found; hate was dripping in the air itself.  First, Jesus would be taken to the place where the lowest of criminals were taken.  This would be no place of honor, but instead to a place of ignominy, reserved for the scum of the earth.  Jesus would not meet His final hours in apathy, but in a rage against His name, against who He was, calculated to make Him guilty, by the association of guilty things all around Him.

Peter recalls the horror of how men would treat His Lord to John Mark in his gospel in chapter fifteen and picking up in verse 22 saying … “And they bring him unto the place Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, The place of a skull.”  Death was to be by intent.  Torture to precede death was to be by intent.  This place was the place dedicated to just such a thing, to just such a mission.  No one landed here who had any hope of living or lasting.  They bring Jesus nowhere near the Temple, or any place of mercy, they bring Him to the place of a skull.  This act alone could help them heap insult upon the reputation of Jesus.  They could not understand how Jesus could see this place as a place of redemption.  For in their eyes, this place was only a place of death, of horrific death.

Mark continues in verse 23 saying … “And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh: but he received it not.”  Grape juice mingled with myrrh to dull pain, prolong torture, and make the horror of His death last longer.  But Jesus would not take it.  With a back and body still bleeding like a civ, from a lashing one lash short of death itself.  The whip laced with shards of glass, and the crown of thorns pressed deep in His head from the blows by the reed doled out by the Romans while they mocked Him.  The pain to the body and heart of Jesus had to be as extreme as it gets.  But He refuses the drink designed to dull that very pain.  He prefers to keep His mind sharp, even though it keeps the pain at its level.

Mark continues in verse 24 saying … “And when they had crucified him, they parted his garments, casting lots upon them, what every man should take. [verse 25] And it was the third hour, and they crucified him. [verse 26] And the superscription of his accusation was written over, THE KING OF THE JEWS.”  Peter was not there.  He knows what happened but at best he was far away when he witnessed it.  So Peter omits the nails pounded into the hands and feet of Jesus.  But Peter knows about the removal of the clothing of Jesus, the humiliation of hanging naked for all to see.  In front of the tortured Lord, they part the homespun cloth as a dead Man will have no need of this anymore.  But Romans enjoy irony.  So above the head of this Jew lies the inscription THE KING OF THE JEWS.  This is meant as a testament to all other Jews who would rise up against Rome, that this was their fate.

Mark continues in verse 27 saying … “And with him they crucify two thieves; the one on his right hand, and the other on his left. [verse 28] And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, And he was numbered with the transgressors.”  Criminals die together.  Jesus would not die alone, but would die with others who were clearly guilty of their crimes.  Guilt by association.  Guilt by proximity.  Jesus does not see these men as criminals doomed to a fate they well deserve.  He sees men who have endured and inflicted such pain by their choices to embrace sin.  This is a pain Jesus would take from them, and free them from.  While their fate on the cross will not change, their fate beyond it could be made free, and eternal, no longer bound to the desire to serve self.  To be no longer destined to repeat a life of similar choices was why Jesus was hanging in between them in the first place.  Jesus must pay their ultimate cost, so He can free them and restore them to a life without such pain ever again.  But what the world sees, what men see, what too often you and I see; is only three criminals.

Mark continues in verse 29 saying … “And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads, and saying, Ah, thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, [verse 30] Save thyself, and come down from the cross.”  And the plan works.  Passers-by, travelers on the way to Jerusalem, remember the words and teachings of Jesus.  But now, given where He is, given who He is with, use these words as a taunt to prove to themselves, that Jesus must really not be the Messiah after all.  Had Jesus come down from the cross, these men would not have been converted, only surprised.  Faith does not originate from fear.  Faith does not originate from insult and challenge.  Faith originates in a love that recognizes what Jesus does to transform who we are.  It comes from submission, not control.  These men had no intentions to believe no matter what the challenge.  They were already convicted of the Savior’s guilt, by where He was, who He was with, and what was happening to Him.

Mark continues in verse 31 saying … “Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, He saved others; himself he cannot save. [verse 32] Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe. And they that were crucified with him reviled him.”  Let there be no doubt as to where the religious leaders stand on the issue of Jesus, and His innocence or guilt.  The Sanhedrin joins in the mocking, and challenges.  They ask Jesus to do, what Satan desperately wants Jesus to do.  Satan wants Jesus to take the easy way out.  To stop all this redemptive work and decide very logically that “we” are simply not worth it.  “We” have earned the destruction we face, if Jesus does not pay this penalty for us.  So stop.  Just stop dying.  Go back to your Father, and leave these pathetic creatures to me.  Satan’s thoughts, his temptation, comes to voice in the taunts of the religious leadership of the true church of God.

At this point, even the criminals beside Jesus join in, in taunting Him.  But worse than this.  The plan is succeeding wonderfully, as scripture reads, they “reviled” Him.  This means they looked upon Jesus as having a reputation lower than their own.  Both of them did this.  Peter does not hear the repentance of one of them before it is too late.  Peter is too far away.  He only hears the jeering, the taunting, the mockery.  Peter misses the redemption and sees only the guilt.  How often do we too, continue to see only three criminals?  We miss repentance because it is quiet.  We are ashamed of our misdeeds, and so are not inclined to shout about them while repenting of them.  Instead we whisper our sorrow over what we have done, and beg in humility to be forgiven which we do not deserve.  How often are accusations hurled loudly against our brothers in church, but apologies said only quietly and in private later on.  Crowds seldom see an apology.  Reputations are damaged in public, and never repaired in quiet lonely places of humility.  There only guilt is assuaged.

Peter is suddenly cognizant of the time.  The crucifixion began in the third hour of the day.  Mark continues in verse 33 saying … “And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. [verse 34] And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”  Three hours into the crucifixion, a strange darkness covers the entire land.  The plague that hit Egypt before seems to hit Israel now.  Everyone knows it is daytime.  This is the reason Peter is reciting the time precisely for us.  But the sun refuses to shine, the stars will not yield their light, nor the moon.  There is nothing but fire to provide light as torches must be lit.  On the day of atonement in the year of Jubilee this miracle begins to happen.  The priests and Sanhedrin have left the scene to attend to their duties in the ceremonies at the Temple.  But they know the reason for the darkness.  The darkness is within them.  And fire may be its only cure.  It is a harbinger of where refusal leads.

But then, a language of heaven is revealed to us.  Peter remembers the story of the bloodless hand that wrote on the walls of Babylon in a language no one could interpret but Daniel.  It foretold of death and doom nearly upon them all for the blasphemy they had engaged in.  Now while on the cross, the language again appears to us.  This time spoken by Jesus, and interpreted by Peter to Mark.  Jesus cries out in agony as to why He must be alone to face this punishment.  But then hell, is the absence of God.  So Jesus must endure a separation He has never known in His life, across space and time.  It is the thing that will kill Him.  It is not all the physical pain, as that has become nothing to Him.  His mind can only focus and detect and absence of His Father’s presence.  He is truly alone.  He is more alone that we will ever be.  For this is the real punishment He is living on our behalf.  And we see with only base eyes, not comprehending what He did then, nor 2000+ years later.

Mark continues in verse 35 saying … “And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calleth Elias. [verse 36] And one ran and filled a spunge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone; let us see whether Elias will come to take him down.”  Those still standing around hear this outcry, but do not understand.  They know the darkness.  The Romans know it too.  Everyone is nervous, nothing like this has ever happened before.  The Jews believe Jesus must be calling to Elisha or Elijah to come and rescue Him.  They offer Jesus vinegar as a stimulant to make sure He is awake for whatever, or whoever, comes next. 

Mark continues in verse 37 saying … “And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. [verse 38] And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. [verse 39] And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.”  Many things to unpack in this scripture.  First, it is the separation from God, the unanswered prayer, that kills Jesus.  In effect, Jesus gives up the ghost.  It was not the pain that did it.  It was not the spear that would do it.  It was the keen effect of losing contact with His Father God.  The torture of separation from God preempts the Roman plans for days and hours in agony.  If only we too would feel that deeply about keeping distant from God, instead of treating it so casually.  The earth is shaken when Jesus dies.  I imagine the energy wave is sent into space into the farthest corner of the universe.  Satan thinks briefly perhaps he has won.  But a risen crop of first fruit quickly shatter that idea.

Darkness still covers the earth.  For the first time, the day of atonement ceremonies feel as though they are being done at night, instead of in daylight as tradition and the law demand.  As the blade is raised above the sheep, Jesus dies instead.  It is Abraham’s experience in reverse.  And simultaneously the Temple curtain that separates the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place is torn from top to bottom, rent in two.  Common worshippers and Temple servants stand awestruck staring into the Most Holy Place directly at the Ark of the Covenant.  The Mercy seat is empty.  There is no presence of God there any longer.  There is no more reason to wear bells on the hem of the robe and a rope around the ankle to drag out a high priest unworthy of this sacrificial presentation.  It is finished.  It is history.  What will come now, is something new.  The sacrificial lamb slips away amid the chaos and the fulfillment of scripture.

The Romans fear for their lives.  They have their own worship system, consisting of many gods.  They actually think it superior to the Jewish idea of one supreme, all powerful God.  They laugh at that idea; until today.  When the darkness appears, when the death of Jesus occurs, when the earth is shaken, the Roman guard there is left with only one conclusion.  Surely and truly this man was the Son of God.  Notice he does NOT say the King of the Jews.  This is a divine event, not a manmade one.  This is creation weeping at the loss of its maker.  The Roman feels it, as much as he knows it.  He is convicted by the power of the Holy Spirit even while standing here at the foot of the cross, at the moment of the death of Jesus Christ.  The Roman’s words echo.  This is not some quarrel between warring factions of gods with limited power; this is a tangible demonstration in the nature of the universe of a singular power, and its depth of sorrow over the death of Jesus Christ.

And so the remorse must begin.  Did I nail Him down to this cross?  Did I lash His body with the whip of leather and glass?  Did I push the crown of thorns upon His head deeper while hitting it with a reed?  Did I spit on Him, in His face?  What sins have I done to this Lord of Lords and King of Kings?  What sins have we done to the Lord of Lords and King of Kings?  Every time we choose to embrace sin knowing this cost, are we not Romans of old?  Our sin guides our hands to pick up the hammer and spikes.  Our sin guides our mouth to spit in the face of God.  Our sin guides our greedy hearts to leave the Lord naked, and part His clothing for a greed that can never be satisfied.  We looked and saw only three criminals.  But now we see two men, and the Savior of all mankind.  But we treated them all the same, all ruthlessly, all without mercy.  This is the cost of our self-love.

Only when it is too late does a reputation reveal itself.  Only after we have tried to kill it, do we recognize what we do.  When we see each other through the eye-glasses of hate, we do the bidding of Satan himself.  When instead of three criminals, we see instead three family members where the loss of them would break our hearts, we begin to understand how God sees us, and how we should see each other.  There is not judgment in that kind of love, there is only redemption in it.  If there is judgment to come upon us, it will be brought by us, as we gaze awestruck at how far love would go to save us, while we refused it.  We should guard the reputations of those we love.  We should love even those the world sees as just another three criminals …

 

Aftermath ...

The darkness remained.  The noise dissipated.  Satan could not believe his own eyes.  He always thought that at some point, Christ in the embodiment of weakened human nature, would find a way to back out of going through with His own death.  Surely God the Father would not permit His most treasured object of affection, to actually die.  Particularly at the hands of this wicked species, who had the special irony of using God’s own religion against Him.  This was beyond the comprehension of Satan that Christ would go through with it, and that God the Father would allow it.

 

Satan and his band of malcontents had lost a war to this Christ.  They had been kicked out of heaven by this Christ.  They knew He had the power of God, and they knew He could easily stop His own death.  And yet He did not.  Christ submitted His own power, and His own desire for self-preservation, and His own human weakness; for the love He felt for us.  And thus Christ went through with our punishment even unto death.  Having all the power in the universe at His disposal, He used none of it to preserve Himself from suffering our fate, and taking on our well-deserved punishment.  This level of sacrifice, Satan had simply become too degraded to understand.  Seeing that love had no limits; effectively had broken down the purported legitimacy of every argument he had ever made about the character of God, on display to the entire universe.

This loss to the kingdom of Satan was stunning.  Satan had long hoped the misery of mankind over breaking the “laws” of God would somehow inspire the rest of the universe to revolt seeing that God was nothing more than a cruel dictator who took pleasure in the punishment of others.  However, to see that same God, give up everything; to see Him sacrifice His only Son; to see the perfect Son do nothing wrong, but willingly yield up even His own life, to save us from the fate and punishment we deserve stood as a real example of why Satan was wrong.  God did not delight in our punishment, but in our salvation.  And He was willing to die in our stead to prove it.  Satan would make no such gesture.  Satan wanted God dead, but would never be willing to make a similar sacrifice for his own kingdom or cause.  The difference was stark.  The difference was clear.  The character of God had been vindicated to the angelic hosts on both sides of the conflict.  The arguments were over.  The rest of sentient life in the universe could see the contrast of love for others without end, and what happens when love is twisted to only please self.  Satan’s argument had failed.  He had lost.  The contrast of good and evil was decided on that cross.  There was nothing left he could say, and there would be no universal uprising against God.  All Satan would have left now, was to hurt God as much as he could before Satan died.  He would hurt God, but by hurting the thing God loves the most, namely us.

Beyond the unseen realm of universal importance was the aftermath of the death of Christ here in our world.  In perhaps the height of hypocrisy, and self-delusion, the religious leaders who would never be able to remove the stain of the blood of Christ from their guilty hands, attempted to purify themselves, and resume services for the Day of Atonement.  Even while they killed the innocent lamb, the irony of killing the Lamb of God was lost on them.  Even though the symbolism of the blood of the lamb to atone for their misdoings was literally all over their fingertips, they missed the reality of what they had just done to the actual Lamb of God.  Instead they would follow self-proscribed ideas about Sabbath observance.  These same ideas had no founding in the values of God.  It was these ideas that had led to the first conflict with Christ, for Christ had loved and healed someone on Sabbath.  And despite their warnings of Christ not abiding by their own Sabbatical laws and interpretations, He had done it again.  So now, in the aftermath of the death of the Lamb of God, in the year of Jubilee when all property must be returned to its owners, all the slaves must be set free, and on the Day of Atonement itself, the religious leaders went about their traditions uninterrupted by the killing of God’s only Son.

But there was a problem.  Great care was always taken so that only the High Priest, wearing the vestments of his office, could enter the Most Holy place in the temple of God.  No one else was permitted to even look into it, upon pain of death.  The priest actually wore bells around the hem of his garment, and a rope tied to his ankles so that he could be pulled out if the bells stopped making noise in the event of his death.  To enter the presence of God with sin, in an incorrect manner, was to die as sin cannot exist in the presence of God.  It was our sin that separated Christ from His Father, broke His heart, and killed Him in grief.  So while every precaution always had to be taken for this singular annual event, today was markedly different.  The great and heavy multi-layered curtain which separated the Most Holy place of the temple from the Holy place where priests were always about their business was torn by an unseen hand from top to bottom.  Temple worshippers, of which there would never be more than now, some of whom had come to Jerusalem hoping to crown Christ their new Messiah King; could now see the Ark of the Covenant without death.  What is more, the presence of God was NOT to be found in the mercy seat.  Christ in fact, would be at rest in the grave on the Sabbath.

Without the presence of God in the temple, there would be no need for pilgrims to come to Jerusalem any longer to worship.  Without the presence of God in the temple, the control of the priests over the people would be broken.  The worship of God would now reside where it always should have been, in the hearts of men, not in the structures we erect in His name.  It was not as if the priests could cover this truth up.  The curtain was torn in front of witnesses.  It could not be repaired quickly.  And the entire missing presence of God was physically seen by the attending crowds.  The need for further sacrifice of sheep’s blood had lost its meaning.  No more would we need sacrifice to point forward to the death of God in our place.  Instead we would now look backwards at this event.  The sacrificial system had lost its significance.  The directives of God for worship in this regard, had been fulfilled.  They would no longer be required.  And to insure we got that message, the curtain had been torn, and the Mercy seat on the top of the Ark was visibly empty.  The laws of God would transfer their significance from the stone shards within the Ark, to the hearts of believers who would submit to their God and learn to love others.  No longer would the Jewish nation be the preservers of love, for they had given that duty away in the act of killing Christ.  From now on, ALL men would be drawn to the Love that was raised upon that cross.  The mercy seat would find its home in our hearts, as would the love of God, when we like Christ yield our will to the Father in Heaven.

The character of God, and the 10 commandment laws were not broken or done away with by Christ, even in death.  Christ still honored God, and kept His day Holy, resting from His own work of salvation; not taking the name of God in vain; nor dishonoring, nor stealing, nor killing, nor lusting, nor coveting.  In every way, before, during, and after His death, Christ upheld the law that began to define what love is to God and man.  This law was a part of “who” God is, and therefore cannot be abolished without abolishing Love itself.  However, the laws of the temple and its system of worship, the laws of animal sacrifice and atonement; those laws had seen their fulfillment in the life and death of Christ.  They would no longer be relevant, or required.  The annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem, or to any other city of worship, would be something without significance to God.  We would now be able to find God, by seeking Him from within our hearts.  God would no longer be constrained to be only in one place, in one temple, in one city.  He was free to be everywhere with us, through the outpouring of His Holy Spirit.

The universe had been sealed forever.  The worship system of God had changed forever.  And the followers of God became publicly scarce in number.  However, the significance of these events were not lost on all who understood the prophecies and what had just been accomplished.  In the heart of darkness, those who had sought Him in secret now emerged boldly from the shadows.   John records in his gospel in chapter 19 and verse 38 … “And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.”  Jesus was dead.  Joseph was one of the religious leadership so Pilate had no problems with having someone dispose of the body.  Next would emerge another follower of Christ who had kept his own allegiance quiet until now.  John continues in verse 39 … “And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. [verse 40] Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.”  These two men and the attending women would take great care of their Lord after His death.  They would gently clean His body, and perfume it with spices and oils, wrapping it in linens for burial.

The Sabbath was very close, and for convenience there was a garden close by, and a new tomb that had never been used within it.  So John records in verse 41 … “Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid. [verse 42] There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.”  They would place Jesus here, at least for the time being, in order that He might rest and they might all return to Jerusalem for the worship they had grown accustomed to performing.  Perhaps they would join with those who sought shelter in the upper room.  Or perhaps they would bear witness to the first fruits that had emerged from their graves at the death of Christ.  A crop he would take with Him when He ascended to the Father; a harvest of what His sacrifice had enabled.  These long deceased messengers and patriarchs of God, walked the streets of Jerusalem with a singular message about the divinity of Christ; a message that would have a resounding resonance. 

By and large the people were still expecting to see Christ at the ceremonies.  They were anxious to crown Him king.  They were anxious to see the prophecies of the Messiah fulfilled.  They had every hope the Romans would soon be leaving.  But the religious leaders knew that could not be the case.  They knew what they had done.  They began to remember the words of Christ, they understood even before His own disciples did, that He might rise again on the third day.  So they took precautions to insure this could not occur through trickery.  John does not record their request they made of Pilate to place 100 guards at the tomb of Christ.  Pilate must have thought the Jews were completely crazy.  But given the popularity of Christ, there was no sense in seeing a riot break out over the disposition of where Christ was buried.  So he directed guards to place a giant stone in front of the tomb, a stone that required many of his guards to move.  They would place a Roman seal on the stone, so that anyone who dared to break it, would know it was a death sentence for them as well.  Pilate and the Jews who sought him out in this matter, believed they had all the bases covered. 

It would have been unusual for the followers of Christ to try something.  Up to now, they had not demonstrated a wealth of bravery.  Up to now, they had been meek, disappointed, sad, and humiliated.  One of their number had betrayed Christ for 30 pieces of silver, and ultimately hung himself in despair.  Another had denied even knowing who Christ was three times in a single night.  One of them was a notorious doubter.  One of them a former Roman tax collector and hated by his own people for it.  Most of the rest were simple fishermen with little education, and no fighting skills.  They would be outmatched at His grave by 100 seasoned Roman killers.  These followers were perhaps the most disappointed in the chain of events.  They knew Christ to be God, but they also knew He was dead at the hands of the priests and the Romans.  Like Satan, they could not understand how God would allow this.  Like Satan, they had always figured that power was the ultimate goal, and they knew Christ had it in Him to take power anytime He wanted.  Like Judas, they probably all had hoped He would simply exert that power to avoid death.  They would have.  We would have.   Why didn’t he?

The aftermath was a time of miracles, a time of reflection, a time of rest, a time of change, and a time of taking measures of precaution.   But nothing could prevent what was about to occur …

 

Proof of Death ...

Before one can come back to life, one must have first lost their life in the first place.  CNN carried a story recently of a man who was pronounced dead for 45mins and after a prayerful declaration by his teenage son, his pulse rate resumed, and he was quite literally brought back to life.  The man appeared on television with his family.  He had no stories of bright lights, or ascending over his body, or seeing departed loved ones.  His testimony was only that he fell asleep at home and awoke several days later in the hospital without any knowledge of what took place in between.  His doctor conducted research and to the best of his knowledge has never heard of anything like this in the medical / scientific community.  So is this a modern day resurrection, akin to Lazarus in the past?  Skeptics will dismiss this story, as being mistaken, facts incorrectly relayed, timing’s being in question.  Perhaps the man in question was never “really” dead.  But skeptics will always find a way to discount that in which they refuse to believe by choice.   There were those I am sure who dismissed the story of Lazarus who spent four days in a grave before being called back to life.  And now, John was to record the final events of the life of Christ, those events that led up to His death.

 

John begins in chapter 19 of his gospel in verse 16 saying … “Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away.”  Pilate had finally given up his efforts to spare the innocent blood of Christ, and had acquiesced to the fervor of the religious zealots who demanded Christ be killed through the power of the state.  From a human perspective, all hope was gone for Christ.  The hate of the Pharisees, combined with the muscle of Roman power, was a combination that no man could overcome.  But therein lies the irony.  This was no ordinary man.  Christ, with the power of His divinity, could have at any time removed himself from this situation.  He had done so on every occasion where the people intended to make Him their earthly King.  But while He exercised divine power to escape fame and earthly glory, He used none of it to escape His own torture and death.  He chose to submit through each agonizing moment, all the way to His death.  It is why He had said that no man takes His life, that He alone must lay it down.  All the power of hate and Rome was nothing against His own will, should He have willed it, He could have stopped the process in an instant.  But He did not.

John continues in verse 17 … “And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: [verse 18] Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.”  No sense in wasting an execution, Pilate determined to go ahead and execute two other captured criminals with Christ.  In yet another Roman expression of efficiency, the criminals were to carry the heavy load of the instrument of torture they were to be put to death upon.  They carried their own crosses (though we know this burden at some point in the journey became too much for Christ, and another was tasked to help Him with it).  Crucifixion was not the same as beheading, or a bullet to the head, or a mortal wound from a sword or spear.  It was intended to be a slow death.  The victim must hold themselves up in order to keep breathing properly.  When the muscles in their legs finally give out, they become unable to breathe, and die of asphyxiation.  Their last ounce of strength would be spent trying to stay alive for just one more moment, with a knowledge that at some point, they would lose strength and die.  Christ had already exhausted Himself, in the beating He had taken that nearly had Him bleed out.  He had been mocked, spat upon, lost more blood from the crown of thorns placed in His head, and again exhausted from trying to carry His own cross.  He would not last long.

Pilate however, had one parting shot at those religious zealots who had refused to listen to reason.  Pilate knew that the Jews believed their Messiah was to be their king.  So John records in verse 19 … “And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS. [verse 20] This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin. [verse 21] Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am King of the Jews. [verse 22] Pilate answered, What I have written I have written.”  Pilate did believe Jesus was indeed the Messiah of the Jewish prophecy, his brief encounter with Truth taught him that.  So, Pilate gave to Christ the title the common belief in that prophecy warranted.  In effect, Pilate was saying to the Jews, whether you see it or not, you have asked me to crucify your only hope.  And Pilate remained firm in keeping this title posted in every common language, near to Jerusalem during a Passover, a year of Jubilee, and a time when every worshipper would be heading into the city.  This was something the Pharisees could not stand, but were forced to endure.

Modern artistic renderings of Christ always show Him clothed during this final torturous death.  It is hard enough for us to bear that He died in our place, but to add the humiliation of seeing our God on earth naked, and exposed for all to see, for His enemies to further mock, is too much for most artists to represent.  But scripture tells us in verse 23 … “Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. [verse 24] They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did.”  His clothing was divided among the soldiers (spoils of war), and He would have no further need of it.  His robe however, was decided by dice as it was a garment woven without seam.  Even in the details of their greed, scriptural prophecy was fulfilled.  The Pharisees were present during these events.  They knew the prophecies.  They had spent their lives debating the scriptures and their meaning.  These events were not lost on them, but they simply did not choose to care, or to truly see their own error and repent.

In another act of cruelty, the Romans freely permitted the women related to the victims of crucifixion to attend these events.  The women who loved these victims would openly grieve for them, pleading for mercy which would not come.  The victims seeing the pain of their loved ones, would struggle harder to survive, thus extending the torture of their own inevitable death.  All of this spectacle only added to the pain and torture for everyone concerned.  The men who were friends of the victim would largely stay away, as they did not want to risk a confrontation with the attending soldiers, or risk being associated with the victim and perhaps find themselves the subject of further Roman prosecution in coming days.  So no matter what the motivation may have been, the remainder of the disciples of Christ were not recorded as being present at His death.  Perhaps they were there and unnoticed, or perhaps they had already fled to the upper room.  In any case, John does record who had come in verse 25 … “Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.”  Four women had come to grieve and spend what little time there was left, with the One who they had all come to love.  I do not know, if the sister of the mother of Christ may have been the mother of John the Baptist or not, but at least Mary had some family present with her. 

Death was now very near.  Strength had given way to the exhaustion of human limits.  For most of us, our thoughts would have been centered on living, on keeping alive just a bit longer.  But even unto death, despite everything that has happened to Him, and all the pain He has personally endured.  The thoughts of Christ are on the pain of those He loved.  Instead of crying out for His own agony, He looks to address the concerns of His family.  John records in verse 26 … “When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! [verse 27] Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.”  Widows were the poorest of Jewish society, without a male to earn, and buy, and manage affairs, a woman could do little to preserve her own life.  So Christ first thinks of us once again, and in so doing affirms that we are family by choice, as much or more, as we are family by blood.  To His mother, He offers yet another son.  To His most loved friend, He offers the care and love of yet another mother, His very own mother.  To care for the widows, and orphans, is not just a lesson to be preached in the Temple, but to be lived by example, even at the point of death.  Even at the door of death itself Christ is thinking about us, trying to care for us, looking out for our best interests.  With all the divine power at His disposal, He does not make miracles to insure the wealth and ease of the life of His mother.  Instead He asks John to love her and care for her.  He asks Mary to treat John as her own son, and to love and care for Him.  It is not miracles that are needed to make our lives filled with wealth and ease, it is only love.  It is love that is truly important.  It always was, it will always be.

Now there was only one more prophetic scripture to be fulfilled.  John records in verse 28 … “After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. [verse 29] Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. [verse 30] When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.”  Every prophecy of scripture regarding the true mission of the Messiah had been fulfilled.  Christ had died.  He had yielded up His own life.  He had laid it down for us.  He had died of a broken heart.  But I do not believe we were the direct reason for His so great sadness.  There was something else going on, something of far more significance, and caused Christ far more sadness.  The burden of our sins were upon Him.  As such, for the first time in His existence (which is without time and space to measure), He was forced to be separated from His Father.  This separation constitutes the very definition of hell itself.  To be pulled away from the source of love and life and be hidden from its view, was more than the heart of Christ could bear.  Sin could not exist in the presence of God the Father.  Therefore though He Himself was sinless, the weight of our sins that He carried, forced a separation between Himself and His Father.  This was just too much for Him.  This separation was more than even His own divine nature could endure.  It would be this separation that would cause Him to yield up His own life, and see His heart broken because of it.   This was the ultimate sacrifice on His part for us; to be willing to endure separation from His Father in order that we might not suffer that fate.

But there was even more at stake for Christ than the separation that was causing His eminent demise.  What if, having been stained with the weight of our seemingly endless evil, He could no longer return to the presence of His Father?  What if this separation was to be permanent?  What if the sacrifice He was making was simply not enough to redeem mankind, or be removed from His being?  He was not just risking a human life in the sacrifice of His life with taking on our sins.  He was risking divine existence as the universe had come to know it.  He was risking everything for us.  He was giving up everything for us.  The scale of His sacrifice was not to be measured in merely His mortal human existence, but in His divine eternal one as well.  This was the question the atheists delight to ponder, could God create a rock so big He could not move it?  But of more eternal significance, could Christ carry the sins of us all, and still return to the side of His Father, having once been stained with the evil of our species from time and memorial?  This answer was not visible from the cross.  Jesus would have to die first, and find out if it was enough later.  His divinity could not answer this mystery before He experienced it.  Thus everything was at risk for our God.  And the pain of separation was that which would cause His own heart to break.  And still He went forward with it.  Still He submitted, and did the will of His Father, without a guarantee it could be undone, or overcome, only a faith that this is the road He must take, and the choice He must make … for us.

And while the fate of the universe itself hung in the balance, the Pharisees had larger concerns, they must insure that preparation for the religious rituals they were to perform would not be distracted by the death of Love and Life itself on a cross outside their city.  These men firmly believed that holiness was achieved through their own actions, not through simple submission.  As such they must “do” what they needed to do in order to be made “pure” before the day of rest and atonement.  John records the height of hypocrisy in verse 31 … “The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.”  The religious leadership of the only one true religion on planet earth, the one established by the Man hanging on the cross, was determined that their murder of their founder would not distract from the ceremonies they had been directed to perform.  Thus they wished to accelerate the deaths of those hanging there, in order to wrap things up by Sabbath.  Ironically there was not even need of this where Christ was concerned, He was already resting.

John records the events in verse 32 … “Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. [verse 33] But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: [verse 34] But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. [verse 35] And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. [verse 36] For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken. [verse 37] And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.”  Now even after He was dead, scriptural prophecy was still being fulfilled.  But beyond this, a lethal spear wound was inflicted JUST to make SURE Christ was dead.  It was already visibly evident.  The darkness as nature refused to witness the death of her creator was unearthly and unprecedented.  The thunder and earthquake that occurred when Christ had given up the ghost, which had woken some of the dead from Adam to Christ and would now bear witness of His divinity until His first ascension in three days, would rock Jerusalem to its core.  And most interesting, the rip from top to bottom of the heavy curtains that separated the Most Holy place from the rest of the temple, allowing EVERYONE to stare straight at the Ark of the Covenant without death.  All of these miraculous events testified at the death of Christ, of His divinity, of the magnitude of His sacrifice. 

But skeptics are not convinced by the miraculous, only by the practical.  So a mortal spear wound through the ribs of Christ would have to suffice for proof of death.  After all, a Roman soldier knew how to kill if nothing else.  They had plenty of practice at it.  And there has never been any dispute that Christ was killed in these events.  There has only ever been a dispute about whether He emerged from death.  The proof that He died seems to have been sufficient for even the most die-hard atheist who examines this record.  Indeed there seems to be ample evidence that He died.  But as said in the beginning, the only way to prove a resurrection is to first prove a death has occurred …